Although many Terrebonne residents have said they are offended by the portrayal of their parish in a reality TV show about the Sheriff’s Office, an upcoming episode may offend in a more personal way.

Katie UrbaszewskiStaff Writer

Although many Terrebonne residents have said they are offended by the portrayal of their parish in a reality TV show about the Sheriff’s Office, an upcoming episode may offend in a more personal way.Footage from the search in September for a man who officials said drowned from a boat crash will air next week on the A&E show “Cajun Justice,” according to his family members, who have said they would prefer those scenes not be on television.The family of the late Sterling Authement Sr., 73, a shrimper from Bourg, did not know the show’s film crew was with sheriff’s deputies during the search in Bayou Little Caillou and the Houma Navigation Canal in Cocodrie, said Authement’s son-in-law Jamey Hebert.A friend told them about two weeks ago that the September incident was going to be featured on the show, said Hebert, who is a lieutenant with Houma Police. The “Cajun Justice” website describes one of the episode’s events as “a violent boating accident” in which Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois “joins forces with multiple agencies to recover a boat, and possibly a body, from the murky depths of the Mississippi waters.”Family members have been in touch with one of the show’s producers, Mark Kadin, to ask that the show be done in good taste. Hebert said he was able to reach him after a day of trying, and Kadin has not avoided his calls.“He was receptive to the family’s concerns,” Hebert said. “We spoke in detail about the episode that would be aired. He promised the family that it would be done in good taste. ... We’re hoping it is.”The episode will air June 28, even though it was originally scheduled to be on television tonight. Kadin said producers decided to postpone it, but not because of his conversation with the family or to edit it, Hebert added.Kadin assured the family Authement’s name will not be used on the show, Hebert said. The scenes are not recreations, as the Sheriff’s Office and former deputies have said of other parts of the show. A&E will air real footage of the search, Hebert said.“So that’s why the family is so upset,” he said. “Our family understands freedom of the press, and while we don’t discourage freedom of the press, we just regret that it has to be relived ... reliving the memories that are still fresh. It’s opening up fresh wounds.”Another “Cajun Justice” producer, Ken Reichling, has referred to himself as a member of the press before, when he declined to testify at a Terrebonne civil trial in which a Chauvin woman sued his production company, MAK Pictures, and the Sheriff’s Office.

Authement was returning from a fishing trip the morning of Sept. 28 when his 25-foot shrimp boat collided with a 36-foot aluminum hull boat at the bayou and the navigation canal, according to authorities involved in the search at the time.The Coast Guard, Terrebonne and Lafourche sheriffs’ water patrols, Wildlife and Fisheries, Houma Police, Acadian Ambulance, Little Caillou firefighters and T. Baker Smith came together to search all day for Authement’s body. They worked all day Sept. 28, called off the search for the night and found his body the next morning, officials said.At the time, family members said Authement, who crafted the boat himself, was in the habit of trawling early, typically starting between 2 and 3 a.m. and returning home by 8 a.m.Family members saw cameras out on the water, but they thought they were manned by Houma television station HTV, Hebert said. They were not happy with that idea either, but their primary concern was recovering Authement’s body at that time.Houma resident Tammie Boudreaux, 54, said in a post on The Courier’s Facebook page that she is upset by A&E’s decision to air the footage.“I knew Mr. Sterling personally and feel that he would not like his death used in this manner,” Boudreaux said. “He was a proud, yet quiet man. ... I think the right thing would have been for his family to be asked if his story could be told and informed on how it would be portrayed. This is insensitive, tasteless and harboring on total disrespect for the deceased.”Bourg resident Victoria Martinez, 21, laid the blame with Bourgeois rather than A&E.“It seems like our sheriff is more concerned about the money coming from the show rather than the people he swore to protect,” Martinez said. “He is making a joke out of us, and putting this family through their loss again on national television is just wrong. To me that speaks volumes about him. Let this family grieve in its own way.”Hebert said over the past two weeks he has viewed reality crime shows in a different light.“You look at ‘The First 48.’ They show a lot of stuff on those shows, and that’s where you realize, you feel sorry for those families once it happens to you,” he said.

Staff Writer Katie Urbaszewski can be reached at 448-7617 or katie.urbaszewski@dailycomet.com.

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